This invention relates to balers for producing cylindrical ("round") bales, and more particularly relates to flare sheets for use with the crop pickup of such balers. Flare sheets are used to prevent light crops from being blown away by crosswinds and to contain hard to feed crop therebetween until the reel teeth 103 are able to lift the crop and feed it into the bale forming chamber 29.
Prior art balers such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,182,101, and 4,252,057 comprise generally a plurality of side-by-side belts supported on a plurality of rollers. A bale forming chamber is defined by the sides of the balers, the rollers and the belts. An opening or throat into the chamber (when in an empty condition) is defined by the lower extremities of front and rear spans of the belts. The throat is located on the front underside of the baler. In the prior art balers disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patents, there is a limited clearance underneath the baler for the location of the crop pickup and a cooperative flare sheet on each end of the pickup. The crop pickup is pivoted adjacent the front of the throat and extends rearwardly from the pivot underneath the throat of the chamber. A flare sheet is mounted on each end of the pickup and is vertically adjustable therewith over a limited range of heights for crop pickup and baler transport. This design suffers from the disadvantages that (1) the distance between the dump point of the pickup tines and the rear belt span defining the rear portion of the throat varies when the pickup is adjusted to different heights and (2) because of the throat construction, there is a limited amount of space available to elevate the pickup underneath the baler for transport and for height adjustment. Adjustment of pickup height is desirable to permit the pickup to be located at an optimum height above the ground based on field and crop conditions.